Big Bang gravitational waves discovered, scientists say

Scientists announced on Monday they have discovered evidence of gravitational waves left over from the Big Bang.

According to The Telegraph, a team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center discovered evidence of the gravitational waves, which were found through the examination of distortion of light energy in space.

Project leader Jamie Bock said, “The implications for this detection stagger the mind.” Bock added, “We are measuring a signal that comes from the dawn of time.”

Scientists have been searching for these gravitational waves ever since 1916 when Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The waves were discovered with the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 telescope located at the South Pole, reports CNN. The telescope picked up evidence of “inflation,” which is how the results of the Big Bang are often described.

“Inflation is the theory about the ‘bang’ of Big Bang,” co-leader Chao-Lin Kuo, assistant professor of physics at Stanford, said. “It explains why we have all this stuff in the universe.”

Stanford physicist Kent Irwin uses the example of baking raisin buns as a way for people to understand the theory. He said that while the dough is baking the distance between each raisin increases while the dough expands.

Oxford University astrophysicist lecturer Dr. Joanna Dunkley said of the find, “These gravitational waves are space itself shrinking and stretching.”